Friday, August 12, 2005

There's a Law

I fell with my angel down the chain of commandThere's a Law, there's an Arm, there's a Hand - Leonard Cohen

There's lots of talk, as there should be these days, about Martial Law, because it's coming to America just as surely as another attack. I think we can say that safely now, if we haven't been saying it already for years. In 2003, General Tommy Franks said he doubted that the Constitution would survive a WMD attack. The doubts should have since been erased: "the US military has devised its first-ever war plans for guarding against and responding to terrorist attacks in the United States.... [T]he new plans provide for the likelihood that the military will have to take charge in some situations."

But when it comes, will Americans recognize it?

I don't know if you recall it, but I remember an old SCTV episode parodying a New Year's Eve special for 1984. Everything was normal until the stroke of midnight. Then suddenly, the message: "Please Stand By." When programming resumed it was drab, mad and Orwellian: Eugene Levy, for instance, hosting a game show called Doublethink, in which contestants try to guess whether choco rations have gone up or down, for the prizes of razor blades and shoe laces.

Say "Martial Law" to people, and often their first thought is detainment: multitudes of dissenters being hauled off to FEMA camps, disappearing into an American Gulag. For others, it's soldiers in the streets. For some, military courts.

I'm not denying the essence of those fears - the Gulag is already real enough for Jose Padilla - but that's my point: the fears have already been realized. Padilla and many others have vanished. The soldiers are in the streets. A formal declaration of martial law seems almost a quaint nod to constitutional formalities, when we consider the violence these people have already done to the constitution.

There will be no "Please Stand By" for America. No on/off toggle for totalitarianism will be thrown with Martial Law, and those expecting one may find themselves saying "Hey, this isn't so bad." America is passing through gradations of grey, the next nearly indistinguishable from the last. It's only in stepping back, in comparing now to then - five years ago; 10, 25 or 50 - that you realize how your eyes have adjusted to the dark.

After the shock of a mass casuality event, and during the aftershocks of martial law, what will be the chief tone Homeland Security will want to set? It will be reassurance. Why? Because FEMA may have many camps, but it doesn't have enough to hold everyone. For the few to maintain power, the many need to participate in their own subjugation. They must be self-contained. And so, Michael Chertoff will attempt to alleviate the psychological sting of martial law, while he rubs the poison in, and invite Americans to "go about their business." (Privacy fears unjustified, Chertoff said this week.) It will be a soft sell of "temporary" measures, dictated by a supposed self-necessity. Americans will be encouraged to pretend that things are normal, or normal enough, and that the measures, while serious and unfortunate, don't affect them. And to keep it that way, many will watch what they say and watch what they do, and become detainees under self-monitored house arrest.

And this is going to happen, unless something else happens, fast. What that might be doesn't particularly matter. But to forestall their intention it must be as big as their own, and as beautiful as theirs is bloody.

Thursday the FBI issued a warning to police that al Qaeda - the CIA's "Database," the late Robin Cook called it, a month before his untimely death - may attempt to use "fuel trucks as weapons to attack Los Angeles, New York and Chicago." Just the day before, a truck carrying explosives was vaporized, and cratered a highway in Utah. I wonder in which direction it was heading?

According to this article, US Military Destroys Bomb Directed Against Chicago.... http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index798.htm , Chicago.

The sacking of the general may be the beginning of the purge of the U.S. military. As Jello Biafra has said, and I've realized recently after studying the subject, Bush and the current regime are much more Stalinist/communist in their practice and means of control.

"Just finished reading Jeff's brilliant blog outlining the means of instituting martial law so that the populace will not even notice.

Listen up, Americans, martial law is already in effect in US, just as Jeff writes.

I have been in Atlanta airport four times this year traveling from Europe. The first time, 1/3 of the airport was cordoned off and packed with US Army soldiers, 300-400 in uniform, probably heading for Iraq.

The second time we entered the airport, six months later, there they were again, 300-400, this time, however, not only was the airport cordoned off, but the Army had commandeered at least five check-in spaces from Lufthansa. My husband and I went to talk to the Lufthansa personnel and asked "What's up?" The Lufthansa staff said they simply walked in and took over, and that they were angry about it because Lufthansa pays an arm and a leg for the space in the airport.

The third time we arrived there they were, same number, all in uniform, being processed to go somewhere.

The fourth and final time was the most outrageous. There they were, the same number of troops, in uniform, but all arranged on a balcony, way up high, that encircles an area where you can get something to eat, all of the troops staring down at the passengers. Then a USO representative appeared from nowhere and yelled out to the passengers to give "our boys a big hand of applause on their way to Iraq". Lukewarm applause.

Then, later on, this same USO guy begins going around to each group of passengers, telling them to applaud and support the troops as they came down from the balcony and then marched down the hallways. When he got to my husband and I and asked us to clap, I shouted at him, "They shouldn't be going to Iraq! "

He looked like he had been struck in the face with a wet towel. Clearly, no one had spoken the truth to him ever. He then said, "Well, don't say anything", and turned and walked away.

Anyway, the troops came down, the sheeple applauded, whistled, and stamped their feet while the foreigners just stood looking on in disbelief.

There are over three thousand military bases inside the US. Could these men and women not have boarded a transport plane at one of these bases, instead of a commercial airport? There are many Army bases in Georgia. These troops were there, in my opinion, to accustom the sheeple to accept, as a usual occurence, the presence of uniformed troops in a civilian environment."

Every indignity visited upon civilians, whether it be the contrived and rabid patriotism of flags and boots, the execution of subway riders or the disappearance of someone with a connecting flight, is an initiation into the 21st century. It is a century that promises a more brutal and frantic era of Being than any other in recorded history. They are preparing a clearing, a chaos to welcome the New Order. Indeed the thread has been there for very long. As it grows more relentless by the day, so too will the imperative noted by Zizek, "Enjoy."

Regarding the Utah incident, i am reminded of something uttered by Alex Jones. This John Birch type of outspoken fellow might sometimes be given over to doling out chicken feed, but in this twilight hour, it's more nutritious than anything the corporate media has on offer. He said these types of incidents are being used to condition troops and first-responders to the impending threat environment, raising their blood a little before the sheeple are given their mass induction into our new consensus reality.

Where did this totalitarian thread come from? It waxes and wanes, just as obvious in the PATRIOT Act as in any pending expansion of the trend. But what about COINTELPRO, what about Paperclip, Monarch, etc.? If so many people refuse to acknowledge the bizarre crimes of the past, refuse to see their present enslavement, how can we ask them to see that freedom is on the march, marching straight out the door? This is why the Holocaust denial movement serves a function for the extreme elitist vampires at the helm: it helps to "humanize" the genocide that is present, future, and past.

FYI to those who read the earlier version of the post, I just added the following paragraph, which states the point I was trying to make (that's what happens when I write these things at 3 AM):

There will be no "Please Stand By" for America. No on/off toggle for totalitarianism will be thrown with Martial Law, and those expecting one may find themselves saying "Hey, this isn't so bad." America is passing through gradations of grey, the next nearly indistinguishable from the last. It's only in stepping back, in comparing now to then - five years ago; 10, 25 or 50 - that you realize how your eyes have adjusted to the dark.

Oh, but we do know what kind of explosives. This from a local NBC affiliate:

So there's no misunderstanding, that truck was not carrying raw TNT but what is called pentolite, a high-end explosive product specifically designed for blasting in mining, construction and seismic exploration.

Pentolite, that blew all this away, is a 50 percent combination of TNT and what is called Pentaerythritoltetranitrate.

While you get more bang for the buck, you usually need a detonator to set it off. So it's relatively safe to ship in what are called cast boosters, similar to these.

Dr. Charles Wight, who heads up the University of Utah Center for Simulation of Accidental Fires and Explosions, says even though the truck caught on fire, the product should have never exploded this way, blasting a crater 70 feet wide and 30 feet deep.

Dr. Charles Wight/ U of U Center for Simulation of Accidental Fires & Explosions: "In a fire, these cast boosters should ignite and burn vigorously, but normally should not undergo a detonation. So I was surprised at the magnitude of the hole."

The National Institute of Makers of Explosives, which self monitors safety in the industry, agrees, saying there have been accidents like this with trucks carrying the same explosives - trucks on fire- but the products never detonated.

Dr. Wight: "I am surprised the fire transitioned to apparently what is a full detonation event. And what intrigues me is the mechanism by which that might have occurred."

We're already having our freedom of movement restricted. Granted, the restrictions are economic rather than military, but think about it: If you can't buy gas, and there's no alternative way to travel, how are you going to move around?

I suppose this will surprise no one, but the company that was shipping the explosives has all kinds of military contracts. here's their website:

http://www.ebco-aerospace.com/

And for the poster who quoted from "whatdoesitmean.com": She tends to mix in articles from the mainstream with speculation and outright falsehoods. I'm pretty sure, for example, that it was not a Saudi Arabian F-16 that took out that truck.

That does leave unsanswered how the thing actually detonated. I'm guessing the truck accidentally overturned (hard to fake that) and that a look inside would reveal some very nasty and suspicious cargo. So, someone pushed the button. And, of course, there should have been no button to push as only a fool would drive such a truck with detonators ready to go. However, surely it can not have been the plan to actually detonate that truck as it was easy to identify...so who knows what the destination was.

Just to add, some explosives (such as C4) are capable of being burnt/incinerated without detonating. GI's in Vietnam would sometime cook their c-rats over burning C4. However, if one were to mash/pound/strike C4 aggressively the chances of it detonating are pretty good. I thought I read that this truck tumbled down an embankment and then exploded. In this case, detonation is quite likely.

I read an excellent book many years ago entitled "Friendly Fascism," by Bertram Gross. Though dated (it was written in the 80s), much of it remains relevant, and the book was eerily prescient.

There are some excerpts from the book, and a comparison of Classical vs. Friendly fascism that is very illuminating.

http://a4a.mahost.org/gross.html

There's also a great album called "Friendly Fascism" by the SF-based hip-hop group Consolidated. The album came out in the 1990s, and features a great collage of Poppy Bush's speeches leading up to Gulf War I.

There's lots of talk, as there should be these days, about Martial Law, because it's coming to America just as surely as another attack. I think we can say that safely now, if we haven't been saying it already for years.

this type of fear inducing prophecy isnt productive IMO.

of course we need to be aware of whats going on, but inevitable?? that IS giving them all the power to do whatever they want, something i refuse to do...

what you are calling marshal law has ALWAYS been the NORM here in NYC...

no matter who the "terrorists" actually are, they are intent on instilling fear. not real fear, but psy op illusion fear, and unfortunately i think thats what they tone of this post played right into.

What we are experiencing is the final culmination of the hopes, wishes and plans of the crime cabals. Martial law in it's present distillation, culled from the greatest psychotics from history and deftly transported to every locale, in every hemisphere. Why? because they need control, compliance and enslavement. They need resources (things like homes, oil, wood and real estate back from the "ungrateful useless eaters". They need you to work for $4.00 or less a day and be happy about it, after all, what's good enough for the third world, is good enough for you. One only has to see the freshest of the day's headlines to see that IT IS about the oil as Nigeria is now facing a new famine (resource warfare) as well as full-on a CIA de-stabilzation effort. The Venuzuelan government is now challenging the covert war the U.S. has been silently waging. The President Hugo Chavez, has now exposed 3 U.S. intelligence directed plots to assassinate him due to non-compliance of turning over his country's oil to Bushco and his oil bandits. The DEA has been implicated in sabotage, and espionage and the CIA have been working overtime attempting to de-stabilize the area. Listen to the prime-time parrots dictate the "news" and see waves of reports designed to incite the world against Iran. Why? because of their potential as a burgeoning world power with control of their own resources. People, it has everything to do with the fact of the U.S. trying to consolidate it's resource control.

We too are looked at as a resource to be consolidated. Too many of us "own" real estate resources they want their rich scumbag friends to have, their solution: Eminent Domain laws. Too many of us are making a living wage which takes money from their gluttonous enterprises the solution: NAFTA, SAFTA, downsizing and outsourcing. Too many of us entertain antiquated, dangerous notions of freedom, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the solution: Government sponsored synthetic terrorism, "instilling the fear" and MARTIAL LAW. Martial law is here to consolidate us all and they will accomplish this as they have been, attritionally. Bit by bit without challenge or outrage. The masses are amazingly compliant to the point of their own self-interest, meaning that they don't mind being compressed into non-existance as long as bread & circus continues to flow. This will dramatically change as a draft is formally instituted and sons and daughters become disposable enforcers and resource crusaders for Bushco. Downsizing has already made us work the jobs of 2.3 people for the wage of one. SAFTA and NAFTA have already outsourced jobs to literally enslave the world's workforce and extinguish any hopes for the quinnessential American Dream. Since a number of those American dreams are financed through credit, the government has now curtailed the bankruptcy laws to include making you pay all the debt you sought relief from in the first place. Don't worry Trump, this new form of indentured servitude isn't enforceable for you. As martial law is instituted, rapes and summary executions in the guise of resisting arrest will rise. Use Nicaragua, El Salvador or a hundred other places for references on how a dictatorship flourishes under the guise of a "democracy". Enemies-of-the-state will be put in GITMO camps, be bio-chipped and now be slaves to be pimped and be experimented on. They will come for them first and then you later. Your first warnings will come as a "Night of the Long Knives" type event where the military is purged of it's weak and non-compliant officers. The second is radical economic shifts on Wall Street as money is shifted to offset potential losses due to sudden loss and/or transformation of industries. Sounds like a corny Schwarzenegger movie? It will happen as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow. The only thing that will stop it is a resolute, focused and intelligent people determined to survive and ensure it's demise.

I'd suggest that the way to clarify Jeff's argument is to recognize that the idea of Martial Law only becomes a reality when there is something to oppose. Hence the definition of "martial". In other words, without unrest, all of the very real preparations for "crowd control", ID verification and such are little more than marginal inconveniences for the majority.

All this is to say that I agree with Jeff--Martial Law is already in place, and being fine-tuned every day. But you won't know it until the first signs of dissent get put down.

"In September 2000, British farmers and truck drivers launched a dramatic campaign of direct action to protest about fuel duty. Their campaign followed a similar one by farmers, truckers, and fishermen in France, which resulted in concessions from the French government.

The protesters blockaded fuel refineries and distribution depots, and, within days, created a fuel crisis that near paralyzed and brought the country to a virtual halt. The media, politicians and the general public were astonished by the effectiveness of the fuel protest.

The impact of the protest was much deeper than anticipated because it struck at a particularly vulnerable point of the economy -- the oil distribution network, which is organized along just-in-time delivery principles. This, combined with anticipated shortages by fuel consumers and consequent panic buying, magnified the impact of the protests on practically all sectors."

How do you imagine this would have unfolded if for some reason it happened here in the U.S.? Would this "peaceful protest" have lasted more than a couple hours? What would the public opinion toward this have been?

Absolutely perfect description and great synthesis of what's happening/will happen! When my nephew wrote a wonderful high school essay (http://essentialemmes.blogspot.com/2005/04/oh-god-politics-and-religion.html) in 2001 about the development of the Patriot Act, he won a national award for it. After he described in clear and reasonable elaboration what the back ground to the new law was, and how it came about, the assumption would be that he would have been against its passage, because it so severely infringed on 200 years of hard-won civil rights. Instead, his conclusion was that since it was a temporary measure (not any more...) it might as well be passed. When asked why he came to this conclusion he simply said "I'd rather be bugged than bombed."Franklin said anyone willing to give up a little liberty for some temporary safety deserves neither liberty nor safety. One wonders how he knew this, and how come "we" don't?THanks again for a great post, as usual, Jeff.

When martial law is declared it'll likely be because of a bird flu pandemic rather than an attack. Bush signed an Executive Order in April adding Bird Flu to the list of diseases that the government can use to impose quarantines. Avian Flu is sweeping across Asia, China and now Russia via water fowl. When it evolves to efficient Human to Human transmission, hundreds of thousands will die and people will willing accept martial law.

According to recent articles in the Salt Lake Tribune, the Utah truck explosion (picture gallery here) has all the earmarks of an accident: careless driving, ruptured fuel tank, and ensuing fire among spilled pallets of commercial explosives (probably loaded on an open flatbed trailer). Although the precise mechanism by which the explosives went off is not yet known, some combination of impact and fire seems pretty likely.

Large accidental explosions can be quite devastating—witness Texas City, New London, and Halifax—but they were caused by human error of one kind or another.

One big risk in times like these is mistakenly identifying accidents or natural events as deliberate attacks, and then reacting too quickly.

The sad and unfortunate thing is that the people of this country have been so brainwashed by socialist education for so many decades that most people know the world only as their government and the elites that own it want them to know it. They can't compute something already digested for them by a talking head or print medium.

This country has definitely earned the status of embodying Huxley's 'happy slaves,' because for all their bluster about 'free speech' or the 'second amendment,' nobody has the balls to stand up for what's right or what they believe in. So long as they keep their cable and private porn, all is well.

Unlike the Jews of 1940s Europe, citizens of this country would willingly walk into their gas chambers if it came right down to it. And since the deeply religious tend to offer greater resistance to socialist bureacracies, they are being exgterminated at Waco TX and Fallujah, Iraq.

These spam comments may very well be automated...but I wonder if it's possible to block them. Jeff will have the IP, but that may vary. I don't know if blogspot provides much in the way of "customer service" since they are a free service, but it might be worth a note to them as well.

I play chess on Yahoo...and you can't even talk in the rooms where you wait to get games because of such auto spam. It REALLY bugs me.

Hunh? No, that would be spook, stooge, Company Man, John Doe number two Padilla, from the OKC psy-op.

Compare Padilla's mugshot and the two different sketches of OKC's "Doe #2" and make your own decision.

p.s. See the innocent-but- bumbling FBI somehow not manage to follow up on slippery Doe #2...

http://www.cnn.com/US/9712/09/nichols/

DENVER (CNN) -- The owner of an Oklahoma waffle shop said Tuesday that he told the FBI about a man who resembled John Doe No. 2 after the Oklahoma City bombing, but that agents never followed up on the information.

"And there's this modified, limited hang-out with a half-twist: a classified intelligence unit called "Able Danger" identified Mohammed Atta and three other 9/11 hijackers as members of an al Qaeda cell in 1999, but "failed to tell law enforcement." Former co-chair of the Kean Commission, Bush family fixer Lee Hamilton, huffs that "had we learned of it obviously it would've been a major focus of our investigation." It always seems too little, and then suddenly, it's too late."

Atta, another promulgated fundamentalist Muslim bogeyman, and another baldfaced Company Man stooge (like Padilla, above). Atta peeling hundreds off a wad in his fanny pack, swilling booze, hanging out with his stripper girlfriend, absentmindedly leaving Korans lying in bars...

Forget 2012, we have 127 days left. Say and do now what you 've always wanted to do but didn't. Got a loved one or guilty of a transgression? Contact them now, say you love them, you're sorry, whatever. Reach out and love someone. Time is almost up.

The WTC firefighters tapes were just released in lew of another disaster. Why blow something else up when a disaster's cries of anguish are already on tape ready for the front pages to agitate support for the Bush agenda, minus the "embarassing" parts of course. Like removing the nasty 'N' word from Mark Twains books; depriving readers of the opportunity to see for themselves how insidiously entrenched racism was when he wrote the books. Censored tapes deprive us of hearing for ourselves the gut wrenching humanity trapped in this crime let alone the possibility of revealing incriminating evidences that might point to or substantiate the case against the true criminals responsible.Lucky for humanity true genius is so very rare. The feckless minds behind this latest strategy can be read so easily, their hand carelessly tipped by using the yellow press of the New York Times as its stage.

Wow Jeff! Where do you get the creepy pictures that head up your posts?The disturbing clowns, the odd and slightly off , dreamlike creatures, not human, not quite animal. Brrrr.They are, in themselves, enough to give a person nightmares. Or , have we seen them someplace before?

to anonymous above - thanks for posting the poem. I am often amazed at how powerful poetry can be. Don't you envy those who have the gift. I wish there were some today with the gifts of Poe and would enter the arena for the cause of truth and justice, and not for the sake of despair. I fully believe wars are fought, won and lost in the hearts of men. But always, the gravity of the situation must be first faced.

excerpt from Poe's "The Bells", stanza IV:

Hear the tolling of the bells-Iron Bells!What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!In the silence of the night,How we shiver with affrightAt the melancholy menace of their tone!For every sound that floatsFrom the rust within their throatsIs a groan.And the people–ah, the people-They that dwell up in the steeple,All AloneAnd who, tolling, tolling, tolling,In that muffled monotone,Feel a glory in so rollingOn the human heart a stone-They are neither man nor woman-They are neither brute nor human-They are Ghouls:And their king it is who tolls;And he rolls, rolls, rolls,RollsA paean from the bells!And his merry bosom swellsWith the paean of the bells!And he dances, and he yells;Keeping time, time, time,In a sort of Runic rhyme,To the paean of the bells-Of the bells:

Atta's curiously conspicuous behavior in strip clubs certainly remind one of the phony Oswalds who appeared in Mexico City and elsewhere in the US shortly before the JFK assassination drawing attention to themselves by their rude and eccentric behavior. That point seems worthy to consider in developing a theory regarding the crimes associated with 9/11.

911 was indeed a ritual, the ritual destruction of the archetypal pillars of jacim and boaz which support the arch at the entrance to the holy of holies....

Think also of the synchronicity of the hollywood media program "The Two Towers" and it's release in november of 2001. This movie was essentially one protracted battle, a clash of civilasations...the hideous, slimy evil orcs up against the anglo humans, hobbits, elves and dwarves...

Can you say "Psychic Driving"?

Hollywood is a system of commercialized mass patterning...entertainment, has flipped into overt mass mind control...entertrainment....

but why systematically condition and desensitize the masses for armaggedon? why would the PTB care if people react more calmly the day the whole thing comes crashing down?

in any event, it can only get more exciting from here! that sounds pretty morbid...just trying to keep it light...

Your points are well taken, Jeff, and highly plausible, if not currently reality, as you say. However, I believe Martial Law, regardless of whether it's to come, or we are in the midst of its pragmatic implementation, is merely a hedge, or a tool, if you will, to keep The Masses in line in order to allow the Zeitgeist to foment, thus paving the way for the Pinnacle Application of The Final Solution to end all Final Solutions.

The Masses have been a useful nuisance, and will continue to be until The Zeitgeist manifests itself in its entirety. In otherwords, the induced, purposeful extermination of The Masses cannot be achieved effectively, or efficiently, until technology has met, or exceeded certain milestones. I believe we are fast approaching those milestones, and The Zeitgeist of which I speak is coming into focus.

With the development of nanotechnology, The Final Solution is finally within "their" grasp. "They" can practically feel it and taste it, that's how close it is. Early preparations are now underway. The Realignment is in process as the foundation is being set for the Paradise To Come.

Here's how I think it will happen.

The development of microscopic, self-replicating microprocessors that mimic bacterial behavior. They can be programmed to eat human matter. If a powerful group so wished, they could deploy such a technology to run its course through the world's population. These programmed, bionic microorganisms could reduce the human population from 10 billion to 100 million in a matter of months, if not days, and do so without any negative consequences for those earmarked for Passover. What I mean by earmarked for Passover, is those who are the Chosen Ones, will be protected from the bionic micro-organism plague by receiving an implant that instructs the invading bionic micro-organisms to Pass Them Over. The bionic microorganisms will devour the human population and leave in its wake a fertile oasis for the Chosen Ones.

Technology will be so advanced by this point that they won't need us. Nanotechnology will replace the bulk of human labor. They will keep a handful of The Commoners for extravagances such as pleasures of the flesh, or as household novelties, or pets. The paradise that they envision will finally be within their grasp. Our time is limited, and I'm not quite sure what you and I can do to prevent it.

The Nazi's dream, and the dream of many of their predecessors, is on the verge of being fully realizable. The dream didn't burn in the ashes of a Bunker in Berlin, if that is indeed how Hitler met his demise, but rather it was reborn, like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, stronger and more invincible than ever.

It is, perhaps, our destiny, and you and I can only discuss a potential reality for which we have no say, or part. Are we just observant bystanders, watching our fate fast approach in paralytic, yet savant-like fashion, or is our ability to step outside, and read the sign-posts a signal from the universe that we who can see are capable of more than just seeing? If so, how, when and what are the answers we need to take this beyond our ability to see, but it seems such an insurmountable challenge. Are we just lemmings, like the rest? Will we be swept into the cascade of human flesh plummeting to our collective demise, even though we saw it coming, or will we be able to prevent the impending calamity?

It's difficult to tell, but the odds certainly aren't in our favor. I know better than to say "there's always hope," because, as you have so appropriately indicated, "hope" is for suckers.

The information regarding a planned NORTHCOM "terror drill" in South Carolina next week echo a 1983 fake news broadcast called "Special Bulletin" where terrorists threaten to detonate a nuke in Charleston Harbor. Recall the episode of "The Lone Gunmen" where a 747 is nearly flown into the WTC. That episode appeared six months before 9/11.

And what ret. Gen. Tommy Franks said in Cigar Aficionado is a cause for concern. He said martial law would be implemented if there was a WMD attack of some sort on US soil. And when I see the people running things in this country - shockingly out-of-touch with even the most basic characteristics of humanity - I get very worried. On the brighter side, I've been talking to people who appear to be waking up to the fact that some 'bad actors' are working hard to bring us into their control grid. Just hope it's not to late to hit the brakes. Great post, Jeff.

The Two Towers was released in December 2002--there was slight discussion about the name being inappropriate, but nothing serious. Most mass media and some movies are clearly mind control, but I think the Lord of the Rings is quite positive as they are fighting the same enemy we are: the eye.

Bottom line: for most Americans, as was the case with most Germans, the Emergency State, won't be too bad. It wasn't until Germany started losing the war that the Germans began to lose faith in The Leader. william Shrier's and Milton Mayer's works are instructive reading.

The Germany analogy - yes, most Germans were enthusiastic about the Third Reich, Lebensraum etc. And when they started to hear whispers of the bad things that were happening, a typical reaction was: if only the Führer knew about this! He would put an end to it right away!

This really says all I have to say about the subject... particularly the 9 or 10 paragraphs starting from the sentence

"To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it - please try to believe me - unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us had ever had occasion to develop. [...] one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head."

It's too bad the first time through the lesson wasn't enough--USAmerica wants to try it again. And USAmerica always gets what it wants...

"It is a century that promises a more brutal and frantic era of Being than any other in recorded history."

Maybe. Probably not for all (but quite definitely for some). Early 21st century America is proving instead to be very different: a totalitarianism draped in the seemingly mismatched clothing of religion, consumerism, and martial obedience.

Thusly dressed to die, we can muddle on much as before during our history. The cultural reins, however, are in fewer hands, and they know the American Experiment has ended.

While it's possible to imagine lots of horrors being visited upon Americans by their government, our brutal and frantic past reminds us we have already experienced as much. Repeatedly. The lasting shock has numbed us to Bushism.

The coming change is likely to disappoint those who look for Spielberg-calibre proofs of crisis. With only set pieces of CGI-worthy calamity there will be plenty of time for the slow, gradual, unceasing, and finally total subjection of institutions and structures to the Bush order, which is also the Kerry order, and so too the Hillary order. Voting charades; news illusions; declining standard of living; increasing corporate authority; diminished dreams; terminal obedience; our underclass in uniform annihilating some foreign shore.

It's important to gauge our expectations of the opposite of freedom, because it doesn't have to look like Hell to be hell.

Unless the door is kicked in tomorrow, we can probably revise Orwell: if you want a picture of the future, imagine a Playstation 3 stamping on a face, forever.

Lo! 'tis a gala night Within the lonesome latter years! An angel throng, bewinged, bedight In veils, and drowned in tears, Sit in a theatre, to see A play of hopes and fears, While the orchestra breathes fitfully The music of the spheres.

Mimes, in the form of God on high, Mutter and mumble low, And hither and thither fly- Mere puppets they, who come and go At bidding of vast formless things That shift the scenery to and fro, Flapping from out their Condor wings Invisible Woe!

That motley drama- oh, be sure It shall not be forgot! With its Phantom chased for evermore, By a crowd that seize it not, Through a circle that ever returneth in To the self-same spot, And much of Madness, and more of Sin, And Horror the soul of the plot.

But see, amid the mimic rout A crawling shape intrude! A blood-red thing that writhes from out The scenic solitude! It writhes!- it writhes!- with mortal pangs The mimes become its food, And seraphs sob at vermin fangs In human gore imbued.

Out- out are the lights- out all! And, over each quivering form, The curtain, a funeral pall, Comes down with the rush of a storm, While the angels, all pallid and wan, Uprising, unveiling, affirm That the play is the tragedy, "Man," And its hero the Conqueror Worm.

Break it down by continents. Africa is fucked by AIDS, desertification, and tribal conflict. Central and South America are just a labor market for us(and will shortly become a source of thousands of troops purchased with our money). We beat the Russians. The Australians and the Canadians are us. The Europeans aren't quite us, but don't represent a geopolitical threat. China has been traditionally non-aggessive outside the borders established in the Tang dynasty and will remain so, largely because they have more problems to worry about internally than externally. Which leaves the Arab world. I predict that within a year we will take out the Iranian nuclear industry, probably using tactical nuclear weapons. Meanwhile the dying will go on in Iraq.

Is there hope? I'm not quite willing to throw in the towel just yet. I think a strong streak of anarchy still resides in the American soul. A lot of those kids serving in Iraq are going to come home to announce the whole thing is bull shit. Sites like this one will help foster protest. It's dark out there, but we've got the means to build one hell of a bonfire.

Police on Thursday said they anticipated charges or a citation would be filed against the truck driver whose semi-trailer full of explosives overturned and exploded on Highway 6 in Spanish Fork Canyon, leaving a crater three stories deep.

"Speed was a factor," said Utah Highway Patrol Lt. Ken Peay.

Travis Stewart, 30, of Rexburg, Idaho, had just left an explosives manufacturing plant at the mouth of the canyon at around 2:00 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. Twenty miles up the canyon, witnesses said the driver of the truck filled with 35,500 pounds of explosives appeared to lose control after taking a curve in the highway at a high rate of speed, said Utah Highway Patrol Lt. Doug McCleve.

I think to some extent, the Bush push to impose the measures of repression is bogged down here, Jeff. Even if a terrorist nuke went off, more people would be alert to the non sequitur or martial law. California is a long way from the Great W. Father in D.C. Given the circumstances of a huge disaster, California will do what feels appropriate- not following orders to turn the US into a gulag. I don't anticipate being rounded up.

I suspect a lot of other places are the same way. I mean, Chuck Hagel of Iowa...that is not a limited hang-out. That's an elected representative getting an earful of it. Hagel is overthrowing the 11th Commandment, and criticizing another Republican, by name- or at least using the unmistakable pronoun... The Republican he's criticizing is none other than the President, George Bush.

That indicates that, conceivably, bipartisan impeachment is in play.

I think that it's important to remember that the support for a war is a consensus reality sort of thing...it comes down to who can shut up and take a lesson, after a while. And I think events are overtaking the Bush effort.

Yo, a 4-star general got relieved of duty. They can't find prosecutors or defense for Guantanamo Bay "legal proceedings." A military judge has delivered a statement that American citizens, including soldiers, are entirely within their rights in refusing to serve in an illegal war effort that disregards the very Consitutional liberties that soldiers are sworn to uphold. There are soldiers back from Iraq in Cindy Sheehan's peace camp. There are other people working on figuring out what people like George Bush and Moon have been up to all of these years...

These stories have lacked that old repetition gambit that's so effective in doing "media". You know, I haven't seen the miitary prosecutor refuseniks doing the TV interview circuit. So I'm repeating them.

That "11th Commandment" of partisan party politics appears to be violated a lot less frequently by Republicans than by Democrats. Consider Max Cleland being pitted against Howard Dean in the 2004 primaries...Republicans would have had more tact.

And Cleland is presumably too much of a Student Council type to realize that his re-election may have been stolen from him digitally by forces behind Chambliss. Maybe Chambliss is similarly naive of the machinations that may have conferred him with an advantage...in terms of what it's meant for Bush so far, it doesn't matter.

( Imagine, we have a Congress so cybernetically inept that they can't understand the principles behind digital ephemerality. They [i]mandate[/i] digital voting? Bring back the ballot box. Back the ballots with Mylar, or something. Or pencil and paper. )

Anyone remember what happened to that voting fraud investigator in that Georgia motel room? Just trying to keep some memories alive...there is the search engine. I'm not much on every deaths being supicious- but along with Cliff Baxter of Enron- (Alberto Gonzalez knows those people), that Florida-Ga. voting fraud investigator is the other one...and that Appeals Court Judge in L.A. who was under investigation for child molestation, who was apprently gunned down by LA police in a case of "suicide by cop"...?

But many people keep wanting to bring up every untimely demise in the world of Celebreality, and the three I just mentioned get forgotten.

Those three are at the top of my list of wanting some follow-up. I'm interested in Paul Wellstone's death too, but the clues aren't there, unless and until someone gives themselves up. The three I mentioned are open to pursuit- someone either looking for guilty knowledge of criminal conduct, or having it.

Sorry, drifting off-topic...as long as we have some fraction of a working system of law in this country...

Whenever a feeling of aversion comes into the heart of a good soul,
it's not without significance.
Consider that intuitive wisdom to be a Divine attribute,
not a vain suspicion:
the light of the heart has apprehendedintuitively from the Universal Tablet. - Rumi